Finding Reality
by Red Blossom57
Summary: A short little one-shot on how Sakura found the one person who, much to everyone's surprise, she fell in love with.


I do not own Naruto. Hey guys, I know that I haven't updated any of my stories in a while. I've just been busy with my band and schoolwork lately. Anyways, this is only my second one-shot, so sorry if it's terrible.

* * *

As children, reality seems like something from a fairy tale, or other made up story. No one ever takes into consideration things like falling in love, or getting your heart broken, until the time comes when you've actually experienced feelings like that.

I thought for sure that you were the one. The one that I thought I would grow up and marry someday.

_I _was the one who looked past all the insults you threw my way. Even if they were the touchy subject about my forehead, or my weird natural pink hair, or even when you always called me annoying. I didn't care, all I was concerned about was you.

Even after you left the village I continued to have strong feelings for you.

Ya it stung that you left Naruto and I, just to get revenge on the only actual family you had left. We missed you terribly, and that's why we started looking for you.

But every time we went out to get you, we could never successfully bring you back home, no matter how hard we tried. And each time we failed, the angrier I got. Not just at the fact that I couldn't bring you back, but also because I was _so_ weak.

For a while all I could do when I got home from another failed attempt, was go to my room and complain about how pathetic I was.

And the more this happened, instead of getting discouraged like before, I got angry. Angry at you, angry at myself, just angry at everything because I was such a failure.

Instead of just sitting around and trying to deal with that anger, I decided to do something different with my life.

After my parents got killed, Tsunade-sama took me under her wing and taught me how to become a better kunoichi.

And a couple of years later, I became the best medic in all of Konoha.

The more time I took to practice my medic skills, the less and less I ended up thinking of you. Of course I would never forget about you completely, but at least I got to the point where I realized that I could live without you.

I became stronger too. I developed inhuman strength, very similar to granny Tsunade's. I always figured that if I ever got to show you how much I have grown into a strong and independent woman, that that would be enough to bring you back to the village. You were always saying how you were going to restore your clan, and I thought that I could be the one who could help you. I thought that I could bring you home that way. I thought that your whole perspective of me would change then.

That dream shattered when I tried to save you the last time. Instead of the shocked expression I was expecting from you, you just smirked and tried to kill me.

That's when everything started to change.

That's when I finally realized that I didn't love you anymore. I'm not sure I ever really did love you to begin with. After that incident with you…. That's when I saw him for the first time in several years.

And oh how I remember that day perfectly.

I was walking home from the hospital when I noticed him leaning against the Hokage building smoking a cigarette.

He had grown up _so_ much. He was taller than before…. a lot taller. His red hair still careless and messy. And his eyes, the most beautiful color of jade I had ever seen. He was gorgeous.

Totally different from the Gaara I knew as a kid.

He must have noticed me staring because he looked over at me, and the second we locked eyes I quickly looked away. My stomach started to turn then. Why was I feeling that way?

I decided to just continue on my way home so I didn't embarrass myself any further. I rushed past him so I could hurry up and get home. And I could feel his eyes on me the whole entire time.

It wasn't too long after that encounter that I ran into him again at the park.

It was a long day at the hospital, and I was heading to the swing I always like to sit on to get my mind off of things.

But as I neared the swings, I noticed someone else was occupying my favorite one. I knew immediately who it was by the red hair and the jade eyes that stared up at me.

I apologized for disturbing him, hoping that he wouldn't be angry.

But instead, he was the one who apologized. I was completely caught off guard by his strange behavior, but decided not to think too much into it.

Gaara had diffidently changed.

This is what led me to want to get to know the new him more. So somehow I managed to start a conversation with him.

He said that he was in Konoha for some peace treaty or something, he wasn't too sure. But as the Kazekage, it was his job to come and speak to the Hokage, so that's why he was here.

The more into the conversation we went, the more I learned about this new Gaara. I liked the new him.

And after talking to him that day, I started to run into him more and more. And the more conversations we had.

It didn't take long for the both of us to actually hang out. And not just us two, but occasionally Naruto would tag along, given him and Gaara were best friends and he wanted to hang with us.

Gaara and I had grown really close because of Naruto. Our friendship became one like theirs, we became best friends.

Eventually, I started feeling weird when around Gaara. I just didn't feel like myself and I didn't know why.

I started to think that maybe I was liking Gaara a little bit more than just liking him as a friend, as crazy as that sounds.

We hung out _all _of the time now, talked for hours on end, Naruto even started to pick up on it starting to be different between the two of us. It was confusing, and I didn't know how to react to those feelings.

But at least I didn't have to feel confused for long, because after Gaara admitted that he had developed strange feelings for me, I instantly knew that I had fallen in love with him. And I knew that he felt something for me. After all, he did admit he was having weird feelings for me.

I couldn't of been more happier either. Sure after the first kiss on the roof of my apartment building things were still a little awkward, given who me and Gaara actually were. It was probably weird seeing us together in public. But eventually we got over it.

We got to the point where we didn't care what anyone else thought about us, they would just have to get over it.

I had my true other half now, and I'm glad that in the end, that other half tuned out to be Gaara instead of you. I know that I will always love you, but as a teammate, and nothing more. And I'll always miss you, as will everyone else in the village. I know that someday you will come home, but until that day, we will keep you in our hearts.

And now that I know that I don't love you, I can continue my life with Gaara.

Sometimes I like to lay in bed and go over the history of how I got to be with him.

It's kind of comical really, how everything turned out.

Waking up to this man in front of me every morning is the best way to live, at least I think so anyways.

Staring at him now, his peaceful features while he sleeps, it's hard to believe that he once had a demon living inside of him.

Yes, he has _diffidently_ changed. As of I.

As I lean over to kiss his forehead, I try my best not to wake my husband up.

'_I guess this thing called reality really did turn out in my favor after all. Now to go make breakfast.'_

* * *

There you go guys! I hope you liked it. And I promise that I will start working on my other stories again soon. I just needed to get this story out of my head. C: R&R Thanks!


End file.
